 | Wingello Things To Do | Tips 1 - 10 of 16 |  |
Popular Things To Do | Other Things To Do Tips | All Tips (16) This is one of the few things you can do in Wingello. Other than lolling about, watching the trains go by, waiting for rain etc etc.
The tour guide really is remarkably well informed and personable - she's me. So get in touch with me and I'll take you out there.
Please bring - insect repellent - those lazy flies sit on your back, cling to your eyes and fly down your throat. Most disgusting. The Ausssie salute - gee they are a friendly lot here, always waving - just isn't enough.
Bottle of water. No creeks to drink from. At least not up on the ridge where we are going.
Bit of tucker in case we get lost.
Mobile phone ditto.
Ready? We're off. If we don't get lost it is maybe 5 k. Remember that we have to go there and back again, so tell me when you have walked half as much as you can and we will turn back if necessary. Leave a Comment
|
Visiting Wingello?
Read reviews about Wingello Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
Laney was home and she put on her boots and hat and guided us to the site. The inscription was hard to make out - covered with muck and bird ***e - and she cleaned it off for us.
We hadn't seen any kangas but we had spotted a blue tongue lizard and an eastern rosella and heard tons of kookaburras chortling away. Gillian reckoned they sounded like monkeys.
Wildlife sightings cannot be guaranteed during the tour. Every time I take a foreigner out into the bush it seems to scare to scare the fauna off. Mind you - middle of the day is not the best time for native animal sightings.
Gillian saw our wallaby mother and joey early the next morning in our back paddock. That was obliging of them to turn up. Leave a Comment
|
Gillian said she had her bush epiphany - the immensity of the place - its ancient character - while Laney and I were walking together up ahead chatting and catching up. That is what I was hoping. That she would get a sense of Australia - taste it just a litle bit. Let it sing to her.
Then Laney invited us back to her place for a coffee and we sat on the verandah of her mudbrick house looking down the sloping lawn to the creek. Her garden is extraordinarily beautiful - full of roses and irises - and her coffee is excellent. Then because she had to go to the shop we got a lift. Gillian and I bought ice creams and after a 5 minute stroll up Bumballa Road we were home safe and sound.
This photo is of Gillian and Laney standing by the cairn that marks the edge of Laney's property. The grave is on crown land. Leave a Comment
|
We begin with a gentle stroll through the village while I fill you in on the local identities. It will be a slightly bowdlerised version of who and what and where and why of course. I know where many of the bodies are buried - why, aren't I taking you up to see where one is buried? - but you know - keep it nice.
No need to strain anything being nice about these folks. Jo and Jeff used to run the shop and Jeff is a carny. Goes all around the place with his rides. Goes up to Queensland in the winter. Used to always put up his jumping castle in the Caswell Park next to the Mechanics Institute Hall when we had a fete on. Nicest people you could hope to meet.
Here we see his dodgems and a merry-go-round stored in their back yard. Leave a Comment
|
Died 8th November 1912. Aged 76 years.
Apparently he had an apple orchard in Wingello and used to come out here to pan for gold in the gullies. He said he wanted to be buried as far from apples and women as possible, so some mates obliged him. No birth date on his headstone, and no birth or immigration records that anyone can find. Perhaps it was an assumed name. Bit of a mystery man it seems. It's a peaceful spot. You could end up in a far worse place.
Gillian pointed out 1912 was the year the Titanic went down. Leave a Comment
|
Visiting Wingello?
Read reviews about Wingello Hotels
Real Reviews from Real VirtualTourist Members.
As I said I took Bernishand and camcorderman on my very first tour. Berni was very taken with this fallen branch which had lodged in another tree. She said it was like a sculpture and took a pic of it. And there it still was. Gave me a funny feeling. Especially as this acre or so of bush is the designated Wingello cemetery - on the map. It is not going to be used until the cemetery in Penrose is full. And people get cremated these days such a lot - can't see this cemetery being bought on-line any time soon.
It was raining when I took Berni and Carl out - it seemed to rain a lot when they were in Australia - they said they had never been in such a wet country and we did begin to call the wet stuff falling from the sky shand - Oh it is shanding, we would say.
And they were tired from all the walking they had done in the Blue Mountains. So round about here they asked for the shortened tour so I just took them on the loop around by Jenny and Terry's mud brick house.
Tours tailored for your convenience and pleasure! Leave a Comment
|
 | |  |
Residents of Wingello are required to display at least one dead car on their property. Ours is down our back paddock but these folks provide passers-by with a photo opportunity.
GillianMclaughlin and I paused to drink in the full beauty of this old veteran. She was only my second customer for this tour. I had taken Bernishand and camcorderman on my maiden voyage.
This is in Camden Street. We are quite close to the beginning of the track and will be in the bush soon. Leave a Comment
|
The Lukes have been doing some clearing and the track I knew has gone.
So while we catch our breath and I decide what to do next let's look at this opportunistic plant which springs up after clearing. It is called Salvation Jane and Paterson's Curse. It can keep sheep alive when times are tough but it poisons cattle and horses.
Now I've decided to head towards Laney's place - you have to go through her land to get to the grave which is on Crown land - and if she is home she can give us directions. Leave a Comment
|
Wingello is a great place to wander around, its very quiet [mostly] except when you come across a family on trail bikes as we did, they sounded like a swarm of very angry bees at first, as we neared them they sounded like a chainsaw symphony !
we didnt see any wallabies or kangaroos, the rain we brought with us meant there was water away from the houses, they didnt have to come into peoples gardens, but later when it rained we heard the frogs singing Leave a Comment
|
Estimated time - 40 minutes.
Very few visitors get away without doing the tour of the back paddock. Maybe the wallaby and her joey will turn up, maybe not. I can guarantee wombat holes, a scribble bark tree with strange scrawly writing on it, and the dam. The highlight of the tour is of course our dead car.
Then you will be taken into the house and offered light refreshments.
I must have escorted people on this tour maybe 500 times over the last 25 years. When Pattypoo was here I couldn't talk her into sticking her head down a wombat hole. She wasn't up for that. But Bernishand was and camcorderman took the pics.
Pattypoo wasn't impressed that I had got the time of her train wrong and we sat for over an hour outside the shop being eaten alive by mosquitos. (Sorry about that.) But we did get to see a young gel get a ride home from an obliging local because her uncle had run out of petrol and couldn't pick her up. Bit of local drama. Always takes your mind off being eaten alive by mosquitos. Leave a Comment
|
| | |
 | 1 | 2 |  |
|
|
on November 7, 2007
on December 28, 2004
